Kim Chin Kyung
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kim Chin Kyung (also spelled Kim Jin Kyong, and with yet other transliterations from the Korean; born 1935 in Seoul, Korea) is a professor of economics and a builder of international institutes of higher learning. He is the Founding President of the Yanbian University of Science and Technology (YUST), which was officially opened in 1992 and is situated in the North-Eastern part of China, inside the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. It has around 2000 students and is counted among the top hundred universities of China. Kim has also been the primus motor of the project and process that has led to the creation of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), the first joint venture institute of higher learning inside North Korea that is founded, funded and operated jointly by both North and South Korean associations and individuals. The PUST project was started in 2001, after personal meetings between Kim and North Korean leader Kim Jung-Il, and is scheduled for its official opening in September 2007, in full cooperation with the North Korean Ministry of Education.
The PUST will have Master and PhD level students from both parts of Korea and will employ faculty from prestigious universities and research institutions from South Korea, the United States, and other countries, and courses will be taught in both Korean and English. The PUST is a high-profile and ambitious venture in the spirit of Korean unification. Kim is also an economic advisor of the Yanbian Korean-Chinese Autonomous Government of China, since 1989.
Kim wanted to join the South Korean army when the Korean war broke out in 1950, but was initially rejected since he was too young. After having signed a petition with his own blood he was allowed to join a student battalion, however, where he was one of only 17 survivors out of 800 fighters. This caused him to vow spending his life's forces to work for the best of people's lives among his then enemies, the Chinese and the North Koreans. He went to Seoul for schooling and education, and then studied in Bristol, England, before moving onwards to Florida, working in business while also pursuing an academic degree in economics. He holds a United States passport, but also an honorary permanent Chinese citizenship.
Among honours won for Kim are the KBS Award to the Outstanding Overseas Countryman of the Year (1995); Honorary Citizenship to the city of Seoul (1995); Honorary Permanent Citizenship to China (1998); and the Korean Peony Prize for Distinguished Service (2002).
